Blink – Edinburgh festival review

When Sophie (Rosie Wyatt) was little, her father made her feel important. Now she's grown-up, Dad is dead – and grief makes her feel as if she is disappearing. Even her office lets her go, citing "her lack of visibility". She has let out the flat downstairs to Jonah, a former night watchman. Jonah (Harry McEntire) has escaped his old life to see the world – or at least Leytonstone – and soon he is given the unexpected opportunity to see more of Sophie's life than he ever dared hope.

From its opening words, which declare: "This is a true story", Phil Porter's clever love story is not what it seems. With its two personable, fresh-faced leads, it appears to be heading into self-consciously charming rom-com territory, and is at times somewhat clunky. You sit back, waiting to be enchanted, but as the story tumbles out, it becomes darker and more interesting.

If this is a true story, it's a very modern one about voyeurism and the fear of intimacy, about watching the world rather than joining in, about how it's possible to know so much about a person and yet so little and how it's sometimes easier to have a relationship with someone via a screen than in real life.

Sometimes it feels as if there is too much here for the hour it lasts, and yet also not enough. But the mixture of feelgood love story and something sadder and more disturbing is neatly handled. There is a nifty forest green design by Hannah Clark, and McEntire and Wyatt are so funny, tender and wistful there is no chance that these fine young actors will disappear off the radar.